A/N: Hello again, eeverybody. In keeping with my BMAG saga, I have decided to move things to the next level with this one-shot offering feaurting Gilligan and Mary Ann. I also wanted to pay special homage to Ms. Dawn Wells, on what would have been her 83rd birthday. Thus, I will also begin to take things in a different direction, as of this posting, as I begin to enchroach an underlying maturity into BMAG's procedings, as their relationship continues to evolve and grow. So now, without much further ado, I present to you, The Proposal. Enjoy!
Mary Ann had a great start to her birthday. Her boyfriend, William, made her breakfast, insisting that she stay in bed and rest on this very special morning.
Mary Ann had the day off. All her chores were carried out, in tandem, by her boyfriend, as well as her girlfriend, Ginger. Together the two of them, while fishing in the lagoon, commiserated on what all which truly behind what was behind this day.
"So, tell me, honey, did you get your gift together for her?" Ginger asked.
"Yes, it is right here," William said, pulling out a seashell, motioning what was truly inside. However, he was not opening it up.
"Aw, you don't want to open it up for me?" Ginger seductively asked.
"No," William firmly answered, "this is for Mary Ann's eyes only—first!"
William was then suddenly overcome with all kinds of emotion. Ginger was, too.
"Oh, William, it will be all right," Ginger assured him, as tears were leaking down her cheeks…as well as William's.
"I know," William said. "It is just that I have been waiting for this day for a while. And now…it is here. And I am feeling very nervous."
"I understand," Ginger said. "This is a very big step you are about to take."
"And I am so ready to take that step," William said. "I just want this to be right…. I want everything to be right."
"And it will be, honey," Ginger assured. "It is going to be right for the both of you."
The two of them kissed on the lips and hugged quickly before resuming their fishing.
Meanwhile, Mary Ann was off on the other side of the island. There, she removed her checkered red dress and deck shoes, and slathered some cocoa buttered lotion, which Professor Roy concocted just for her, all over her body, from face to toe. She pulled her hair up onto her head, pulled out the 12"x12" beach blanket and sunbathed in the nude. She particularly did this often, especially on her birthday, to allow her honey-tanned skin to drink in the sun. Although Roy always prepared this lotion for her during their time on the island, her Negro disclosure this past summer brought about a special formula designed particularly for Negro skin. She always loved bathing in the sun and wanted no tan lines on her body. Also, when the time truly came for her and William to enjoy that first special evening together, she wanted to be special for her man—just as he wanted to be special for his woman.
As she got up after her sunbathing, she basked in the glow of her glistening skin, with a big smile on her face, imaging her and William being intimate with one another. She enjoyed being nude by herself and looked forward to being nude with William. Therefore, she always wearing her short shorts whenever she could wear them—admitting to being something of an exhibitionist. Now that she was disclosed as a Negro on the island, this inhibition was fading very fast-she was so comfotrtable in her skin, that she was happy walking around nude and no longer cared who saw her. She walked around nude for a while, on the beach, going as far as the edge of the ocean as the waves kissed her feet, before putting her dress and shoes back on and heading back to camp.
Later that evening, the castaways gathered at the table to eat a special birthday dinner for Mary Ann, which had been prepared by William and Ginger, consisting of tuna and shrimp coconut pie, along with a pineapple-and-orange libation William himself fixed. Everyone said, and sang, happy birthday to Mary Ann.
After dinner, the castaways excused themselves from the table to hold off on desert, as William and Mary Ann walked away to their very special place together on the island, taking the 12'x12' beach towel and a radio with them.
Through the entire walk, William had been very quiet as he walked with Mary Ann, holding what he had been carrying inside of himself, along what he had in his pocket, all day long. Once they arrived at their spot, the couple unfurled the blanket, sat the radio down to listen to KHSL radio, and, at William's suggestion, walked to the edge of the blanket now on the ground. William asked Mary Ann to stand with him. The interracial pair stood together, holding hands while facing one another directly.
"What is on your mind, baby?" Mary Ann asked.
"Well, all day…it has been…you," William said. "I have been thinking about you all day long. And I have been thinking about this day for so long."
"Well, it is my birthday, baby," Mary Ann said, smiling.
"All the more reason," William said, smiling in return.
"So, what is it, Willy?" Mary Ann asked, still smiling.
"For over three years, we have been on this island," William said, on his way to getting to his point. "When we first set sail aboard the S.S. Minnow, I always thought you were a nice and pretty girl. Then, we became shipwrecked and were forced to work together to survive. In that time, I have gotten to know you very well, and we became friends. Close friends. Best friends. I came to love you for who and what you are right then and there. When I was voted president of the island, you enthusiastically called me your man. Well, that stayed with me always. And it sustained me for many years while we have been here, through ups and downs, many good times and bad times. Through these years, the seven of us have become something of a family. Yet, recently, our family unit was challenged by a sick man named, Jonathan Kincaid. And in vanquishing that coward, we came together, kissed, fell in love, and had coconut cream pie that night. We spent our first night together as a couple, and as we shared more things about our pasts, I found out that you are a Negro. I was shocked at first, but I got past that shock quickly and fell in love with you even more. That love has grown over these past few months. And though we will always be bonded together with our island family, I want to make our part of that family more of a reality. Whatever happens with us, however long we are this island, and, hopefully, when we are rescued, I want to be close to you as I can be."
The romantic tension was so thick that if felt as if it could be cut deeply with a pocketknife. It was at that point that when William let go of Mary Ann's hands, dropped to one knee in front of her, and removed his hat from his head. At this point, William began breathing nervously as Mary Ann had a bewildered look on her face. The sailing man pulled out that closed seashell he had been carrying around in his pocket all day and opened it up for his girlfriend to see. Inside was a golden ring (using some of the gold he had held back on but left behind originally) which was adorned by an huge pearl—one of the ones William had held on to after an early rescue attempt was foiled by the other castaways' gold fever attack and subsequent greed.
Mary Ann was so stunned that the tears fell at first sight of the ring. William's eyes were teared up already. From there, he popped the question he had been holding inside all day.
"Mary Ann Summers," William asked, "will you marry me?"
"YES! I WILL MARRY YOU, WILLIAM GILLIGAN!" she exclaimed with an emotional squeak in her voice. After William slipped the ring on the third finger of her left hand, following a quick loving glance at her engagement ring by Mary Ann, the two of them broke into a huge, deep kiss, falling into the blanket and holding one another in their passionate, loving embrace.
As they kissed, the engaged couple rolled around on the blanket listening to Lulu sing the theme song to the recently released film, To Sir, With Love.
"I love you, Mary Ann," William said.
"I love you too, Willy Baby," Mary Ann squeaked, as the two continued their first, passionate kiss as an engaged couple.
A short time later, the interracial pair returned to the camp area with themselves, the radio, and blanket in tow. The other five castaways were gathered around the table awaiting their return.
"Hey, everybody," William said, "great news!"
"What is it, little buddy?" Skipper asked, brimming with enthusiasm with the other seated castaways.
"We're engaged!" Mary Ann cried, with a smile, holding out her left hand to display the engagement ring around her third finger.
Everybody gathered around the engaged couple to congratulate them. As Skipper, Mr. Howell, and the professor all applauded William, while kissing Mary Ann, Mrs. Howell kissed the youngest couple on the island, while Ginger kissed both betrotheds deeply while hugging her fellow romantic couple simultaneously. Of the castaways, no one was happier for the engaged pair than Ginger.
The seven of them then sat down for some coconut birthday cake for Mary Ann, which had been baked by Ginger and William earlier that day while the latter's now-fiancée was sunbathing on the other side of the island. As they all enjoyed the desert, their minds ran through what was coming for the island's next married couple.
Now, Mrs. Howell could go ahead and openly begin planning for an interracial wedding, as she was itching to do for months. Mr. Howell was giving his wife all the support she desired.
Skipper was happy to see the young man his little buddy was growing into, realizing that his Gilligan was about to become a husband—and maybe even, eventually, a father.
While Professor Roy's head was now contemplating a new kind of move with his own girlfriend.
Who, herself, felt as if she was engaged with the island's version of The Lovings.
Ginger, Mary Ann, and William stayed locked in with each other for the rest of the evening.